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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Looking For Love In All The Right Places
9/26/2005 | Football
Sept. 26, 2005
When Ole Miss quarterback Micheal Spurlock packed his bags and headed to Oxford just over four years ago from his hometown of Indianola, he was leaving his roots for his love. Football.
It was Spurlock's passion to play football and after a standout high school career that saw him set Class 5A state records of 3,348 yards passing and 35 TDS, he made the decision to continue on with his dreams and play football at Ole Miss.
From the first day he set foot on campus, Spurlock knew being at Ole Miss was going to be a special time in his life, he just didn't know it was going to be special in more ways than one.
Micheal Spurlock and his fiance' Danielle Jones  | |
First days of classes for college freshman are a busy time, especially for football players. You have to get acquainted to the campus and your new instructors, get to know your roommate and for a football player there is also practice and meetings to attend. Lost in the shuffle on that first day of class his freshman year, was Spurlock meeting one Danielle Jones.
Jones also happened to be a freshman and the two crossed paths briefly on that first day on campus. It is a meeting Jones has not forgotten, but one Spurlock struggles to remember.
"According to Danielle we met the first day we were here at Ole Miss," said Spurlock, who graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. "I don't really remember that, but if she says it happened, than it did!"
As Spurlock remembers it, the two formally met later that semester as they again crossed paths on campus. The two had a short conversation, but a long enough one Spurlock was taken with Miss Jones.
"My first impression of Danielle was that she was really cute," said Spurlock. "At the same time she seemed really smart, so I said to myself that I needed to get to know this girl."
The getting to know you process for the two took a rather long time. Spurlock maintained his focus on football. Although he was playing back-up to All-American Eli Manning, he wanted to be as prepared as he could for the moment it was his turn to play. He did not want any distractions to get in the way of his focus, so he chose to sacrifice his social life a little bit.
In the meantime, Jones was focusing on her own endeavors at Ole Miss. She spent a year with the ROTC, she is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and has been on the Ole Miss homecoming court. The two dated casually and spent time getting to know each other, but did not let things get too serious.
August 2004 was a big month for Micheal Spurlock. He was finally the starting quarterback for the Ole Miss Rebels. All of his hard work and dedication to football appeared to be paying off. With things going so well with his love of football, he decided to have more focus in other aspects of his life, and he stepped up his commitment to Jones. The two began dating exclusively, a big step for the Rebel signal caller.
"We had taken our time getting to know each other," said Spurlock. "I had always liked her a lot, but I had not been ready to give up any time for anything besides football. I realized then that she was too important to me to keep putting her on hold so we took that step forward."
Just when Spurlock felt he had all of his ducks in a row, things started to unravel. He earned his first college start against Memphis and he had his favorite girl in the stands to watch.
Despite all of his time and energy spent preparing for his moment on the field, things did not play out the way Spurlock had envisioned. His performance against the Tigers was subpar and his performance the following week at Alabama was more of the same. After one half of play against the Crimson Tide, he was pulled from the game and played sparingly the rest of the season. His dream of a successful football career could have faded right along with Ole Miss' 4-7 season, but it didn't thanks to the support of Jones and the rest of Spurlock's family.
"Danielle was with me every minute during those trying times," said Spurlock. "She really helped keep my spirits up. We prayed together a lot and she was very encouraging. Our relationship deepened quite a bit during that time."
With the coaching change occurring in the Ole Miss program at the conclusion of the 2004 season, new life was breathed in to Spurlock. Ed Orgeron was hired and Spurlock knew he was getting a second chance at football, a chance he was not going to pass up. Although he was going to dedicate much of his time and energy to football in order to make a push for the starting job, he had learned during the past season that there is life outside of football. He was not going to let his relationship with Jones be sacrificed.
"After all we had been through together I knew she was the one for me," said Spurlock. "I was just sitting on the couch watching TV last spring and it just came over me that I needed to do something about it. It was then that I started making plans to propose."
While maintaining his focus on football, Spurlock also managed to sneak in a meeting with Jones' parents. He got permission to ask for her hand in marriage, and in August 2005 he did just that. While Jones had a feeling the two would get married, she was surprised with the proposal and excitedly accepted.
"We were getting ready to go out for dinner and Micheal was acting kind of silly," said Jones, who also graduated from Ole Miss in May 2005. "We had talked about getting married, and he said he was going to propose sooner rather than later. I was fixing my hair and the next thing I know, there is a ring box on my shoulder. I had no idea he meant that soon!"
The couple are planning a June 2006 wedding in Jones' home town of Philadelphia, Miss., but they have a few plans in store before that time. With the woman he loves on his arm, Spurlock wants his dreams of a successful football career to come true.
